- published: 08 Nov 2013
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Sharon (Hebrew: שָׁרוֹן, Tiberian Hebrew: Šārôn) can be a female name which can be spelled with one "r" or two (Sharron).[citation needed] It also refers to several places in the world.
It derives from a Israelite place name meaning "forest" in Hebrew, referring to a fertile plain near the coast of Israel. This gives its name to a type of flowering shrub, the rose of Sharon. Various nicknames of Sharon include Sha, Sharai, Sharona, Sharonald, Sharry, Sherri, Sherrie, Sherye, Share Bear, Sharonstein Bear, Sharoo, Shazz, Shazzy, Sharoon and Shazam.
Sharon is one of many names that could formerly be applied to males (as in the 19th-century historian Sharon Turner), but is now nearly always used of females (cf. Vivian, Ashley, Beverly, etc.).
In the United Kingdom its popularity peaked during the 1960s. It was the 10th most popular female name by 1964 and was still as high as 17th in 1974, but a sharp decline in popularity followed and since the 1980s it has not even featured in the top 100.